Creative agency Roger and full-service production company Big Machine have entered into a strategic merger that will expand the creative capabilities they provide to agency, brand, and entertainment clients. Key players in the business partnership are Roger creative directors Terence Lee and Dane Macbeth along with executive producer Josh Libitsky, and Big Machine director Steve Petersen, creative director Ken Carlson, and business development exec Sean Owolo.
The Los Angeles-based shops join forces to become a multidisciplinary creative studio under the Roger name, offering expanded creative talent and resources for projects that require branding, design, animation, VFX, VR/AR, live action and content development. Located in the Silver Lake neighborhood of L.A., Roger’s new 6,500-square-foot studio–custom designed from the ground up to foster a collaborative working environment–includes four private offices, three editing suites, two conference rooms, an empty shooting space for green screen work, a kitchen, and lounge.
The studio is already embarking on a number of projects, including major creative campaigns for Disney and Sony Pictures.
“Big Machine and Roger have always looked at ways to partner on projects and organically expand our reach into new markets,” said Lee. “We just genuinely click as creatives and as friends, and share a vision for what it takes to bring together talent, ideas, and resources to create awesome work.”
Owolo added, “Roger’s breakthrough creative for major brands and Big Machine’s Emmy-winning content know-how allow us to offer our clients a truly complete package for every aspect of their brand.”
Libitsky concluded, “Existing clients will appreciate the breadth of experience we have under one roof now. We can assemble highly strategic and super-talented teams tailored to a specific project–or combine all of our resources in tandem to develop a fully integrated experience from the top down. We’re equally excited about how the merger positions us to explore and experiment with new mediums and areas of business.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More